Men's College Basketball

NCAA basketball scores: Markelle Fultz’s star debut can’t lift Washington over Yale

The possible top pick in the 2017 NBA draft was incredible in his debut, but Washington is still struggling.

Nov 14, 2016, 2:24 PM UTC

NCAA Basketball: PAC-12 Conference Tournament-Stanford vs Washington

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.

Lorenzo Romar knew he invited a brighter and harsher national spotlight at Washington the minute Markelle Fultz signed his letter of intent. The Huskies’ five-year NCAA Tournament drought would no longer be able to hide behind late-night start times and a growing number of NBA alumni. With Fultz, a player projected as the possible top pick in the 2017 NBA draft before he ever stepped on campus, Romar had to win, and he had to win now.

That’s why Washington’s season opener on Sunday amounted to a worst-case scenario: Fultz shined in his debut, but the Huskies still fell, 98-90, to a Yale team playing without its best player. Just one game into the season, Washington is already erasing the margin for error on its non-conference schedule if it finally wants to be playing into March.

The most discouraging thing for Washington is it still couldn’t beat beat an Ivy League team at home on a night when Fultz was spectacular. The 6’4 guard finished with 30 points, seven rebounds, and six assists on 11-of-17 shooting from the field, validating his hype as a high school player in the process.

It wasn’t enough. Yale dominated the interior behind the strong play of senior Sam Downey (22 points) and sophomore Blake Reynolds (19 points). The Bulldogs outrebounded Washington 42-29 and consistently found ways to finish in the paint against a young front line for the Huskies. Yale made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1972 last season and upset Baylor once they got there. The Bulldogs are a good team even without injured star point guard Makai Mason, but this is a game Washington shouldn’t lose.

Of the seven players who played major minutes for Romar, four were sophomores, two were freshmen, and just one was a senior. No one expected Washington to lose Dejounte Murray and Marquese Chriss at the onset of last season, but both broke out in their freshman campaigns even as the team could only make the NIT. Now Romar has to get a young roster to come together quickly or risk the embarrassment of missing the tournament for the sixth straight year with the possible No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

There is a recent precedent for that, of course. It was only last season when Ben Simmons made the unconventional choice to play at LSU only to watch a nightmare season unfold where the Tigers missed the NCAA Tournament and saw their year end on a humiliating, 71-38 defeat to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament. Romar doesn’t want the same scrutiny Johnny Jones just faced, but it’s going to be unavoidable if Washington can’t find a way to pick up victories before Pac-12 play starts.

Fultz is supposed to be a once-in-a-career player for a coach at a school like Washington, but that isn’t the case for Romar. He won’t get fired regardless of how poorly this season goes because he has another top NBA pick coming in next year in super-recruit Michael Porter Jr.

The victories on the recruiting trail just won’t mean much if the only thing Romar has to show for it is another trip to the NIT.

North Carolina was impressive in crushing a tough Chattanooga team

Just ask Tennessee about how good Chattanooga is this season. Chattanooga opened its season on Friday with an 82-69 win at Tennessee, reaffirming its position as one of the top mid-majors after making the NCAA Tournament last season as the winner of the Southern Conference.

At least the Mocs can take solace in a split against power-conference teams on their opening weekend. North Carolina did not take Chattanooga lightly on Sunday and the result was a 97-57 blowout in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels were simply too big, too fast, and too strong for the Mocs, and unlike many of the other teams at the top of the polls, this is a veteran group that already knows how to play together.

UNC overpowered Chattanooga inside, finishing with a 52-31 advantage on the glass. The Tar Heels starting front line of Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks combined for 27 points, while freshman big man Tony Bradley was impressive in chipping in 12 points off the bench. There won’t be many teams who can match Carolina’s talent in the front court, as has been the case in most years under Roy Williams.

Another bright spot for UNC was the play of sophomore guard Kenny Williams. A late addition to last season’s recruiting class, Williams barely played as a freshman but projects as a valuable shooter this year. He had 11 points, six rebounds, and five assists on Sunday on 4-of-7 shooting from the field.

Williams liked the effort:

“That’s a Danny Green kind of stat sheet right there,” Roy Williams said, “where you’re involved in a lot of good things.”

Carolina has a tough Long Beach State team on Tuesday, but its first real test comes at the end of the month against Indiana. For the Tar Heels, 2-0 feels great right now.

Illinois’ Malcolm Hill is the best player you don’t know

Illinois senior wing Malcolm Hill has yet to play in the NCAA Tournament, which might be the reason he’s rarely mentioned among the best players in college basketball. It looks like he’s on a mission to do everything he can to change that this year.

Hill popped off for 40 points and 12 rebounds on 13-of-23 shooting (with 5-of-8 shooting from deep) to move the Illini to 2-0 this season. He’s a complete offensive player who will have to carry a heavy burden for Illinois to finally get John Groce’s team back to the NCAA Tournament. It looks like he’s up for the challenge.